Rumor Roundup

Santana Signing Soon?

Ervin Santana might be in a rush to sign; or, maybe not
FOX Sports baseball insiders Ken Rosenthal and Jon Morosi got some conflicting information over the weekend. Rosenthal heard that Ervin Santana was itching to join a club and could settle for a one-year deal to get down to spring training as soon as possible. Morosi, on the other hand, was told that Santana might “wait days” before accepting an offer.

Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes had more concrete news on the Santana front: He wrote on Saturday that the right-hander has two offers on the table that would essentially match the qualifying offer from the Royals that Santana rejected last fall. The Blue Jays would hand him $14 million for the 2014 season, while the Orioles’ bid was at $13 million with incentives that could at least bump the value up to the $14.1 million paycheck he turned down.

If Santana is in fact willing to accept a one-year deal, he’s likely to come to a decision soon. There’s no obvious reason to wait, because the longer he stays on the market, the less regular-season work he’ll get.

One source of trouble for Santana, though, is that neither Baltimore nor Toronto is an ideal destination for a fly-ball pitcher hoping to turn in a strong year before giving free agency another try. Both were among the top four parks for home run hitters last year, and neither club was good at preventing fly balls that stayed in its yard from dropping or doing damage. The Orioles allowed the league’s fifth-highest BABIP on fly balls (.119) while the Blue Jays came in with the 13th-worst mark (.098); the two teams allowed the highest (.622) and third-highest (.600) SLG on flies. Santana’s previous employer, the Royals, were above average (.093 BABIP compared to .096) at fielding flies and offered a pitcher-friendly environment.

CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman added on Saturday that a senior-circuit team is involved in the Santana bidding, along with the American League East rivals. The Rockies were previously connected to the righty when Jhoulys Chacin was undergoing tests for a shoulder injury, but Denver Post beat writer Troy E. Renck followed up less than two hours after Heyman’s report with word that Santana won’t be coming to Colorado.

The rest of this article is restricted to Baseball Prospectus Subscribers.

Not a subscriber?

Click here for more information
on Baseball Prospectus subscriptions or use the buttons to the right to subscribe and get access to the best baseball content on the web.